Thursday, May 30, 2013

On May 24, 1813, just months after
publishing Pride and Prejudice,
Jane Austen went to a
show in search of her female hero. ''I dare say Mrs. D[arcy] will be
in yellow,'' Austen wrote to her sister, fully expecting to find her heroine at
the event—a retrospective of the painting of Sir Joshua Reynolds,
the preeminent painter to the rich and powerful of late 18th century
England. Austen came away disappointed at not finding a painted equivalent to
her novel’s main draw, but modern viewers won’t be disappointed by an online
recreation of the exhibition titled What Jane Saw, which will draw in not
just the legions of Jane Austen fans but also anyone interested in the origins
of the museum blockbuster as well as the beginnings of celebrity culture and
its discontents. Please come over to Picture This at Big Think to read more of"Seeing Art the Way Jane Austen Saw it."

Thursday, May 23, 2013

What really matters in an art education? Do we
teach every child to paint or sculpt? Do we school them in names and dates and
places? Or do we somehow teach them the elusive and dangerous “truth” of what
art is or should be? Jean-Francois
Laguionie’s animated film The
Painting (Le Tableau), distributed across the United States this
month by GKIDS, Inc., uses the ages-old
technique of allegory combined with the modern wonder of animation to tell the
truth of what making and appreciating art really is. Dazzlingly designed,
rapturously rendered, and devastatingly direct, The Painting pictures
for an impressionable audience how art makes us more ideally human by making
the medium itself move.Please come over to Picture This at Big Think to read more of "An Animated Parable of Painting."[Many thanks to GKIDS, Inc. for providing me with the image
above from, a screener’s copy of, and other press materials related to The Painting (Le Tableau), which opened in New York City on May 10th
and will expand to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, Atlanta, and other
cities beginning May 24th.]

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Survey of Famous Paintings

What famous paintings are discussed most often in art history books? Which famous painters created these masterpieces? Masterpiece Cards explore major Renaissance paintings to modern ones, offering art analysis and vital statistics about each. Details? Click the box.

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Woodbury Fine Art Portraits

Custom oil portraits or drawings from photographs. Philadelphia-area portrait artist is available for custom renderings in oil or pencil. Preserve your family members in a lasting work of art. All it takes is a photograph. For more information and pricing, please contact Dave at dwell123 “at” verizon.net. Click on the portrait above to go to http://woodburyfineartportraits.blogspot.com/